The Application Process

I had a great overall experience and I was admitted to my realistic stretch school. I applied to Harvard and Stanford, though I thought of those basically as "lottery tickets." Given my background, the best school I could have hoped to get into was Wharton, and Stratus helped me deliver. I was also admitted to almost every school I applied to ranked below Wharton (Booth and Columbia), which speaks to the quality of the service.

My background: I attended an unimpressive state school, I have a 730 GMAT, 3.6 GPA, work in research for an $xxx bn. AUM investment fund and I have stronger than average extra-curriculars.

The good: Shaifali helped me pitch myself in the best way possible. My story ended up as clean and concise, and it included points that I would have never thought to add on my own. She always responded to emails promptly (I used their services for 5 schools and I think our email chain was almost 200+). In her emails and calls, she always offered strong and helpful advice.

The bad:
The bad: Shawn's (the founder) sales pitch. He significantly over promised in a number of ways. Although his pitch ultimately got me to choose Stratus over other companies I was initially interviewing, there was no way Shaifali could live up to what he advertised. I will note that Shawn is no longer with the company, so I expect this point is void for all future applicants using Stratus. Another thing that left a bad taste in my mouth - Stratus ran a promotion in November. Shawn told me if I didn't sign up by the end of November (about a week after I first spoke with him) I would miss out on this amazing opportunity. I felt stressed about missing out and signed up and paid the non-refundable price in full. In February, I got a general email from Stratus advertising a better deal. I spoke with them and they upgraded me to a better package (i.e., more schools). Although this was a slightly negative experience, they did make it right in the end.

Overall, I thought the consulting SERVICE was very strong. Shaifali did a great job and I would recommend her to anyone that wanted to work with a consultant. Ultimately, I feel a good consultant helps present the best version of yourself, and on that they delivered.